


The No Co-Worker Policy

by arrowsshootyouforwards



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: AU, Dr Culber - Freeform, It is set in a hospital, M/M, Minor Character Deaths, OC characters, Paul has a Policy, Slow Burn, nurse paul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25427746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrowsshootyouforwards/pseuds/arrowsshootyouforwards
Summary: Paul let's his best friends wife set him up on a blind date and the guy seems amazing. But he leaves the date half way through, claiming an emergency at work. Paul goes to his shift the next morning to find that his date was called in to help because he's the new Dr the other nurses were talking about the day before. Problem solved right?Wrong, because Paul has a policy where he doesn't date co-workers.He and Hugh discuss things and try to navigate their friendship
Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets
Comments: 10
Kudos: 25





	The No Co-Worker Policy

Paul wasn’t sure what made him go along with all of this. He’d always liked to know as much as possible prior to going into a situation, which is likely why he loved his job. Paul was a nurse across paediatric and adult surgical recovery wards at Discovery Hospital. When people first met Paul, _nurse_ wasn’t the first thought that came to mind when people imagined his job and that was because Paul was never at ease with strangers and to many he wasn’t considered to have a sense of humour, or be particularly polite, until and only if, you got to know him that was.

He put tonight’s insanity down to 3 things. First, he blamed his best friend Justin entirely and that was only because he quite adored his friend’s wife too much to blame her. Justin’s wife Elaina had come to him two weeks before saying a friend of a friend had promised to set their friend up and when they had described who they were talking about, Elaina had suggested Paul. No, he blamed Justin because Paul was quite happy to politely decline, but Justin took it upon himself to mention He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and his new partner and how happy they seemed. So it was all Justin’s fault.

Second, he blamed himself. Paul had always thrown himself into his work and never given himself much time to do much other than indulge in his one hobby. His pride and joy. Paul had always liked cars when he was younger, his grandfather had owned an auto shop where in the summers, he would teach Paul and his brother to take engines apart and rebuild them by hand. Paul had carried on with the hobby, rebuilding cars from scratch and then selling them to collectors. He would spend hours in his time off scouring websites for parts and putting the car together by hand. If Paul hadn’t become a nurse, he would have likely become an engineer. His current project was a present for his grandparents. It was a few years off of their 60th wedding anniversary and Paul had spent the last three years finding and putting together an Aston Martin that had been his grandfather’s first car which his grandparents had travelled the country in on their honeymoon.

And thirdly: It was all Justin’s fault.

Paul was sat at the bar of a nice restaurant, waiting for his blind date to arrive. All he had was a name to go off, Hugh and a face from a photo Elaina had shown him so he would know he was looking at the right guy. Paul had finished his shift at the hospital earlier that afternoon, all of the other nurses had been talking about the new Dr coming in who would be replacing Dr McKellery, who was retiring. While Dr McKellery was well loved at Discovery Hospital, Paul had never loved him. Dr McKellery had been one of the first Drs Paul had ever met at the hospital and Paul had instantly disliked him because the first thing he had done was try sending Paul, who was extremely busy just trying to find his way around the large hospital, on a coffee run. Paul had told him quite plainly that, no he wasn’t going to get his arrogant ass coffee, and McKellery had given him a wide berth ever since, clearly not used to the nurses telling him ‘no’.

Paul tried not to think about the new Dr coming, Paul didn’t love Drs. They usually told him that he wasn’t suited to his job as a nurse as he seemed cold and his no nonsense attitude came across as harsh, and what patients in recovery really needed, was a tender, gentle hand. Paul disagreed. What a lot of them, in his experience, needed was a firm hand and to be told “no, you can’t get out of bed” or “no, I will not bring you your laptop so you can make a conference call”. But Drs in the hospital usually had so many patients, they didn’t see the times Paul was soft and caring towards his patients.

“Excuse me, are you Paul?” A smooth, soft spoken voice asked from behind him. Paul turned and had to take a second to reboot his brain, because he was looking at frankly the most handsome man he’d ever seen. “Um, Paul?”

“Yes! Yes, sorry, I’m Paul, you’re Hugh?”

“Yes, Hugh Culber” Hugh smiled at him and Paul was enchanted by his dazzling smile. They shook hands and Paul invited him to take the seat beside him, as their reservation was not for another ten minutes. Hugh declined an alcoholic drink, stating that he was driving and ordered a cranberry juice. Their conversation flowed easily, though they both avoided the topic of their employment, which was fine with Paul as he sometimes got strange looks and comments when people realised, he was a male nurse.

They had made it through their starter and main when Hugh’s phone rang in his pocket. “I’m so sorry, do you mind if I take it, it’s work.”

“No, please,” Paul said, Hugh got up and stepped out to take the call. It was only a quick call, but when he returned, Hugh’s face told the story. “I’m so sorry, there’s an emergency and I have to go. This was really nice, and if you’d like, I’d like to see you again.” Hugh said, taking out his wallet and paying for both of their food and drinks. Daringly, he leaned over to kiss Paul on the cheek and hurried out of the restaurant. Paul got the check and gave them the money Hugh had left, telling the waitress to keep any change as an extra tip and made his way back to a cab place to get a ride to his home.

As he walked, he heard several sets of sirens rushing past on other streets as he drew closer to the place. He texted Justin to let him know he was home only to receive a call back almost immediately.

 _“Well that was quick,”_ Justin said as soon as he answered the returning call.

“He got a call, claimed an emergency and left. He did pay for dinner, which was kind of him. He left the waitress a very generous tip.”

_“So do you think you’ll see him again?”_

“I don’t know, if a guy’s willing to run out on a date in the middle of it, I’m thinking maybe he wasn’t enjoying himself as much as I was,” he said, entering the garage.

 _“No,”_ Justin said through the phone, recognising the sound of his garage light, _“do not work on the car, I’m coming over, we’re having beers and we will watch the game, but I am not letting you lose yourself in that car and not get enough sleep before your shift tomorrow.”_

“Fine, whatever,” Paul sighed, shutting the light off and returning to the kitchen, pulling two beers out of the fridge. On the other end of the line he heard Justin talking to Elaina and then the front door opening and closing. Paul and Justin lived very close to each other and the journey was maybe ten minutes on foot.

_“Stay out of the garage and I will be there in 10.”_

“See you in 8 or I’m locking you out and working on the car.” Paul said, hanging up so he could really wind his friend up. Paul didn’t go near the garage; he turned the baseball game on and unlocked the front door for Justin, sinking into his couch to watch.

The next morning, Paul showered and dressed before starting his own car to go into the hospital, picking up Justin on the way. Justin was a bloodwork technician at the hospital on the same floor as Paul. They had shared a few classes together in college and happened to end up working at the same hospital. Paul signed in, greeting the nurses on the desk, “You two need to go to the breakroom before handover,” Joy, one of the older nurses told them. “Chief is introducing McKellery’s replacement in five,” she explained.

“Thanks Joy, we’ll head right over,” Paul said, while Justin complained asking why he had to go. “Because you’re early and I’m making you,” Paul told him.

“‘ _We should car share Justin, it’s better for the environment,’_ yeah, better for the environment, bad for Justin,” he muttered, making Paul laugh. Once in the breakroom, they fixed themselves coffee while they waited, talking about what their days had in store for each of them. Paul knew there was a regular coming back on his ward this morning, from their final round of surgery to remove several tumours, and he wanted to be free to be there when the kid woke up.

As they chatted, the Chief of Medicine entered the room, later than expected, “thank you all for coming, as some of you are aware or may have seen, there was a large traffic collision last night, so our new man has been working on the job, he’s just changing into some fresh scrubs, then he said he’d come down to meet you, we called him in a night early, to help with the crisis,” he told them. “He comes highly recommended from his last hospital and we were lucky to snatch him up when we did. Ah, here he comes, please help me in welcoming Dr Hugh Culber,” Paul almost sprayed his coffee all over his best friend as the others around him clapped to welcome Hugh as he stepped into the room. There was no mistaking it, it was the same guy.

“You OK?” Justin asked, confused. Paul and Elaina hadn’t told him the name of the man he had met the night before. Paul watched as some of the other Drs and a couple nurses went up to Hugh, shaking his hand in greeting. Justin looked between Paul and the new Dr and it clicked. “Oh shit,” he said, trying his hardest not to laugh and failing.

Paul had always had this policy, he didn’t date co-workers, he’d done it once before at the first hospital he had worked at. It hadn’t ended well and when it all fell to pieces, Paul had been the one who had left his then dream job. Finding the Discovery Hospital had been a Godsend. Paul loved it here, he had made some friends amongst the staff and he had what he considered a life. Now he knew the story about why Hugh abandoned their date, Paul was faced with the dilemma of what if Hugh asked him out again. He decided he had to be honest with him, if it even came up.

Hugh caught his eye and smiled. ‘ _Fuck’_ Paul thought, it was definitely going to come up. Hugh made his way over to where Paul and Justin were sitting, greeting them both.

“You never mentioned you were a Dr,” Hugh said to Paul.

“Um, yeah, that’s because I’m not, I’m a nurse,” Paul responded, awkwardly.

“I’m so sorry.” Hugh said, feeling bad, where he had worked before, the Drs and Nurses had colour-coded scrubs, this hospital didn’t, so he’d been having trouble knowing who was what, straight off the bat.

“No, it’s fine, um, you never mentioned you were a Dr.”

Hugh smiled, looking down, “yeah, I try not to, it tends to frighten people off sometimes. Drs tend to have a reputation for being workaholics and having unholy work hours.”

“I have heard,” he admitted. He noticed Justin had snuck off to work and Paul was glad as he would have been smirking the whole time no doubt.

“I’m sorry about last night, I really was having an amazing time,” Hugh told him. “I was serious about wanting to do it again sometime, if you’d be up for it?”

It was Paul’s turn to feel bad. “Ah… I’m sorry, I have this rule about not dating co-workers. I had a really bad experience with it- If I’d have known I would’ve said something-”

“No, please, I totally understand. Guess we’ll just have to be good friends then.” Hugh said, charmingly and Paul could only agree with a nod, his words deserting him.

Paul found that he and Hugh would be spending a lot of time together, if Hugh’s first week was anything to go by. Hugh, obviously, was working with the patients on the wards where Paul was assigned. A few things stood out about Dr Culber that a lot of the nurses noticed, which made him very popular among them. For one, he would take the time to actually talk to them if he shared a break or lunch hour with them. He didn’t stick exclusively with the other Drs, which to be fair, he was around 20 years younger than most of the others in that part of the hospital. He also didn’t just hand any old task off to the nurses. Hugh was very willing to get his hands dirty and do tasks that the other Drs often just handed off onto the already overworked nurses.

Hugh did a lot of his own work, but he never complained. He always had a smile for his patients and co-workers. Paul found that he shared a lot of his breaks and lunches with Hugh and the Dr usually tried to keep the conversation away from work, which was another thing that worked in his favour. Together they built a good professional working relationship that puzzled the other Drs who all had seemed to have issues with Paul in the past.

“How come Stamets never gives you problems?” One of them asked him over a rare lunch on a day Paul wasn’t working.

“What do you mean?” Hugh asked, confused.

“He doesn’t give you attitude when you ask him to do things for you?” One commented.

“To be fair none of the nurses seem to give you issues or attitude,” an older guy said to Hugh.

“Well, that’s because I don’t give them endless workloads, they do their job and I do mine,” he shrugged. He knew he was likely isolating himself from the other Drs with that comment, but it was who Hugh was, he knew when he became a Dr that he would have to work hard and tirelessly to save lives and that’s what he planned to do. Not just hand his work off to the nurses. They had their own jobs to get through.

Due to the nature of Paul’s job, sometimes he was rotated through other departments, one of those departments was Urgent Care. The Urgent Care unit had been quiet for most of the day when a young boy and his dad had been brought in after being involved in a car collision. The father had passed on the way to the Hospital, but Paul was closest when they got into the UC. He listened to the Drs barking orders at him to save the boy’s life while prepping him for surgery.

When Paul was rotated back to the Surgical Recovery wards the boy’s mom recognised him as someone who had worked on him when he first came in. “You, you were here when he first came in,” she said, surprised to see him.

“Yes, hi, Paul Stamets,” he held his hand out, but the woman threw her arms around him.

“Thank you, I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost both of them,” she said to him, after releasing him from her bear-like grip.

“It’s no problem, really, it’s my job,” he said, assuring her with a smile. The boy, Kieran was 12, he and his dad had been on their way to a Phillies game when a driver had t-boned their car, killing his father instantly, but Kieran seemed to escape with fewer injuries. Kieran was with them over a few weeks and got to know his carers very well in that time.

Paul, who was also a Phillies fan, bonded with Kieran and managed to pull in a favour with one of the players he had helped treat a year before, telling him Kieran had missed the game, and what a game it had been. The player had convinced some of his friends to visit Kieran in the recovery ward, signing a baseball and bringing him some of the merch with them for him. Kieran said he’d never had a better day.

“That was really nice what you did for Kieran,” Hugh told him over lunch the next day.

“Well as a Phillies fan, I couldn’t deprive him of such an experience,” Paul chuckled as they ate together. The two talked comfortably when Hugh’s pager beeped frantically. He looked at it and swore.

“It’s Kieran,” he said, abandoning his lunch. Paul also left his, sprinting, taking the stairs two at a time as they rushed back to Kieran’s side.

Kieran’s mother was sobbing, Paul helped her up and out of the room before rushing back in, taking orders from Hugh, who was desperately doing chest compressions on the tween. Tears were streaming over Hugh’s cheeks by the time he was reluctantly stopped by one of the more senior Drs who called the time of death.

Hugh retreated into his office after apologising to Kieran’s distraught mother and Paul was left to take care of the paperwork. Kieran was the first patient he’d lost in years, he’d stretched too far and tore some internal stitches, passing of internal blood loss before anyone could know what had been happening.

Paul was fortunate enough to have the next day off so he could take time to mourn Kieran. He’d spent the afternoon consoling his mother who had been barely responsive. Both Hugh and Paul as Kieran’s main caregivers were invited to his funeral where they stood respectfully in the back and gave their condolences to his mother.

A few months later, Paul was dealing with a particularly interesting patient. Interesting because the woman’s family were completely dismissive of Paul, whenever he said anything. Paul had a reputation between the nurses and patients of being extremely firm but fair. He’d prevented patients from doing all kinds of activities that were against Drs advice. Once confiscating the laptop of a persistent patient who was trying to continue with business after having heart surgery brought on by heart attacks from the stress.

Patients on his wards knew that Paul was a force to be reckoned with. Their families, however, were a different story entirely.

Paul was looking after an older woman who it appeared was the backbone of her entire family. They would come to her with every and any little problem they had, asking for blessings and relationship advice. The woman, getting on in her years had fallen trying to put up Christmas decorations and broken her hip as well as cracking a few ribs.

The patient was lovely, she always had a smile for Paul and Hugh when they came to check on her and when Paul fussed over her, claiming she reminded him of his own great-grandmother. Her family were another story. They were determined that she would be able to be released so she could host the whole family for Christmas, all 26 of them! Paul, at the insistence of the poor woman had been putting his foot down that she would not be recovered nor well enough to come out before Christmas. They demanded another opinion and dismissed any nurse that came in front of them. One of them spotted Hugh and called out to him. Hugh came over, smiling at his patient, “afternoon Mrs Neece, how are we today?” He asked, but he was cut off by her relative.

“Dr, could you please tell this _nurse_ that my mother will be perfectly fine and out by Christmas? The whole family flies in and it’s really the biggest event we have all year,” the man, her son, insisted. “This nurse is trying to tell us that my mother will not be well enough for release, let alone to host,” the man scoffed.

Hugh took the patient’s chart from the edge of her bed and read it over, he turned to the son, “why would you want to hear it from me when I’d just be repeating everything Nurse Stamets has just told you?” He asked, pulling a confused face and acting innocent, though inside he knew the exact reasons.

Paul had to hide his triumphant look, as the son stuttered through his response and his mother laughed at him, “I told you I wouldn’t be well enough,” she said, “and so did he,” she added, jerking her thumb at Paul. The woman’s son went away, grumbling that the whole family would have to make other arrangements for the holiday.

“Thank you,” he said to Hugh after the son was out of earshot.

“No problem, he really should’ve listened to you.”

“Well some patients don’t think we nurses know what we’re talking about,” Paul told him.

“Well they are sorely mistaken, and I shall endeavour to correct them when I see them,” Hugh told him.

“Why thank you, Dr Culber,” Paul said.

“You’re welcome, Nurse Stamets.”

The two men shared a laugh before returning to their work where Paul’s patient he had been tending to high-fived him for helping her getting out of hosting dinner for her whole extended family. She was content to spend the holiday in the hospital, having made friends with some of the other patients and her nurses.

“Well I’ll be here to see you,” he said.

“You don’t go to visit your family?” She asked, concerned.

“My family have never been particularly festive, my parents always had work to do and my grandparents often travel for the holidays,” he shrugged, “Thanksgiving is more our holiday,” he told her, checking her levels.

“Well I insist you eat with me, if you’re here anyway,” she told him.

“I would be honoured Mrs Neece.” He told her, grinning.

Every time he checked in with Mrs Neece, she was hard at work with her crochet, she had been working on a blanket for her latest great-grandchild when she first came in, it had been keeping her busy while she waited for her bones to be strong enough to start practicing to walk again.

When Paul joined her for Christmas dinner during his lunch break, she pushed a package towards him, eyeing her, he unwrapped it to find a scarf in navy blue and bronze wool. “Thank you, so much,” he told her, being off duty, he kissed her cheek in thanks. “I’ll be sure to think of you when I wear it,” he assured her. When he saw Hugh the next morning, bringing coffee to the nurses just coming off the night shift, he saw he was wearing a similar scarf in navy and silver and smiled, pointing to his own.

“Look at that,” Hugh commented, “twinsies,” he joked.

“That’s a good colour on you,” Paul told him, “she made a great choice.”

“As does yours,” Hugh complemented. Their moment was short lived as Hugh was paged, “duty calls,” he said, handing Paul a coffee which was made just the way he liked it as he sipped and began his day.

The next Summer, one of their co-workers, Joy from the front desk was getting married to her fiancé. Jett Reno, the head of the janitorial team at the Hospital. Both Hugh and Paul were invited and as they were both single at the time, they were stuck on the same table with other co-workers they didn’t know as well. Due to this, they spent the majority of the time talking to each other, avoiding the topic of work completely. Paul learned from Hugh that he had a sister, who was planning to visit him in a week or so. She had grown curious to see the hospital where Hugh was content to stay, having been at three hospitals before Discovery in the last 24 months. 

Paul managed to meet Hugh’s sister the day she arrived. The girl, almost 10 years younger than Hugh was wandering around the department, looking lost. “Excuse me, can I help you miss?” Paul had asked.

“Yes, please, I’m looking for my brother, Hugh Culber?”

“Dr Culber, yes, he’s with a patient, you must be Mariana, you can wait in the break room, he’s using his office,” as they passed the desk, Paul told Joy’s cover that he was taking his break and could she let Dr Culber know his sister was in the breakroom when he finished with his patient. Paul showed her to the breakroom and got her a coffee.

“So you work with my brother?”

“Yes, my name is Paul, I’m sure you’ve heard horror stories,” he teased.

“No actually,” Mariana said to him, “your name is familiar though,” she said, “I’m sure Hugh has mentioned you,” she told him, racking her brain, trying to remember.

“Not to worry,” Paul assured her. He introduced her to a couple of the other nurses, who immediately began quizzing her for anything on Hugh they could find out.

Hugh arrived around 20 minutes later, looking hurried and flustered. “Mariana,” he said.

“Hugh, so good to see you,” she said, standing and hugging her.

Hugh switched his language to talk to her in Spanish, their first language. Paul had passed his Spanish in High School, but that had been years ago, he remembered enough however to know that ‘caliente’ meant ‘hot’ and when said while looking at a person it didn’t tend to be talking about a person’s temperature. Hugh’s blush confirmed his thoughts as Paul excused himself to return to his patients, telling Mariana that it had been a pleasure to meet her.

Hugh had booked a couple of days off to show his sister around the city, but to him it seemed all she wanted to hear about was his job and the nurse she’d met. Hugh told her about the blind date he and Paul had had before knowing each other at work and Paul’s policy about not dating co-workers. “That’s a stupid rule,” she complained.

“To you,” he told her, “I personally think it’s quite sensible,” he defended Paul to her.

“You like him,” she accused.

“What, no, as a friend maybe,” he said, flustered.

She laughed, “try not to protest so much and I might believe you, now, come on, you promised to show me around,” she insisted.

When Hugh returned to work a few days later, he and Paul had their break together. “How was your sister’s visit?” He asked.

“It was good, I think it eased her worrying about me, I am a little far away from home,” he admitted.

“Where’s home?” Paul asked.

“We moved around a lot when we were kids, my dad was in the army, but my folks settled in Phoenix,” he explained to Paul.

“You are pretty far away,” Paul agreed with him.

“Yeah, it’s been hard on my mom, but it’s what I needed,” Hugh told him. Hugh’s beeper sounded, cutting off their conversation as he disappeared.

One of the older Drs retired that Summer, leading Hugh and a couple of the other younger Drs pulling double shifts to distribute his patients between them. As a consequence, Hugh and Paul shared fewer breaks and lunches and when they did, Hugh looked practically like a zombie. A few of the other nurses had taken to trying to look after him, despite his weak protests that they needn’t do so. Paul did his bit too in looking after the overworked Dr, when he would be leaving, but saw Hugh in his office doing endless paperwork, he would go to the local coffeehouse and pick him up his favourite tea, just the way he liked it and leave it on his desk at the same time every day, knowing his schedule like clockwork, before sneaking home, with his gesture, to his knowledge remaining undetected, never seeing the knowing and appreciative smile on Hugh’s face when he found the tea.

Hugh and Paul came into unexpected contact outside of the hospital. Hugh had moved to a new apartment after his first Christmas at Discovery Hospital and now used the same grocery store as Paul. The most memorable time they met without planning was later Summer, at a Phillies Baseball game. Paul, Justin and Elaina had season tickets and went regularly. Justin spotted Hugh first, with a boy looking just shy of his teenage years, when he was getting hotdogs. As it happened, Hugh and the boy were sitting close by and with lots of empty seats between them.

Justin invited them to sit with them, surprising Paul, who was a very different person at Phillies games than he was at work and didn’t really like letting the two coming into contact. “Hey, look who I found,” he said, all too innocently when he returned with the hotdogs. Paul smiled at Hugh but in his mind, he was trying to telepathically tell Justin that there was a special place in hell for people like him.

“Hey good to see you,” Paul said as Hugh and the kid sat in the seats by him.

“You too, this is Wally, my neighbour’s son. His dad was meant to be bringing him but he had to work and asked if I’d take him. I’ve watched him a few times since moving in. Wally, this is Paul, we work together.”

“Hey,” Wally said, but his eyes were glued to the game and he was dressed head to toe in Phillies gear.

“You’re quite the fan,” Paul said to him, Wally even had his face painted.

“I had to,” Wally said, giving Hugh an up and down look, “had to make up for him being a _Mets_ fan,” he told Paul acting like he was saying a curse word, with an overexaggerated stage whisper of the actual word.

Paul’s face change, “Oh dear,” he said with grave seriousness. “I don’t know if we can be friends anymore,” he told Hugh, “in fact I don’t know if we should be seen with you,” he told him, concealing his enjoyment as Hugh looked somewhat panicked. Hugh was really just a passive fan who would occasionally catch the game on TV, or the highlights when he would get home from his shift. Suddenly Paul laughed, “I’m kidding, don’t look so worried, it’s not a good look on you,” he said, bumping shoulders against Hugh. “But you really should take that hat off in this section. You’re lucky we aren’t playing them today.”

Dutifully, Hugh removed the Mets hat, stuffing it into his bag. He had wondered why he had been getting some looks, he had assumed it was Wally’s get up, now he knew better.

Later that week, at a garden party at their house, Justin gave Paul some amazing news, Elaina was pregnant, and he was going to be a father. Paul was ecstatic for his friend, congratulating him enthusiastically. “Congratulations, God, I’m so happy for you,” he said, unable to stop smiling himself.

“Thanks Paul, there was something else,” Justin said, “we talked it over and we couldn’t imagine anyone else for the job, we want you to be the Godfather, if you’d want to.”

“Justin, Elaina… I’d be honoured,” he said, having to think to find the right words. “Of course I will.”

“Thank God, I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep it to myself.”

“I’m really happy for you both, how far along is Elaina?”

Justin looked sheepish, “about six months,” he said.

“OK, no way, there is no way I haven’t noticed in that long.”

“She’s been good at covering it and she wasn’t really starting to show until recently,” Justin shrugged. “Her mom and sister had risky pregnancies, so we’ve kept it private, just in case,” he explained.

“I totally get it, I still can’t believe I didn’t notice, but I’m really happy for you,” he grinned.

While Paul was thrilled, he was terrified. Would he be any good at being a Godparent? What would he even do? Would the kid even like him? His current panic was due to the upcoming baby shower. Paul was an intelligent man and good with the kids in the hospital, but that didn’t mean he was an expert in what babies needed. He knew the basics, of course he did, but as a Godparent and Justin’s best friend, he wanted to get something special.

Hugh found him in the breakroom, a month down the line, scrolling through the online registry for the baby shower, brow furrowed, deep in concentration. “That looks serious,” he says, making Paul jump.

“Um, sorta, it’s the registry for Justin and Elaina’s baby shower, I’m trying to find the perfect thing to get and… Well I’m not really a baby person, I don’t know what I should get them.”

“May I?” Hugh held his hand out and Paul held out his phone. He spent a few minutes scrolling before tapping on a couple of items to get a look at the specific ones recommended. “Here, I’d go with any of these,” he said, passing the phone back. “Though if you go with that stroller, I’ve heard many complaints from my older sister that the wheels are a pain in the ass, but my other sister swears by the sister-model.”

“Thanks, you seem quite the expert,” Paul commented, claiming his item from the registry.

“Well when you have four older sisters and one younger, three of which had kids while I was still in school, you pick things up.” Hugh shrugged.

“Ah, I only have a brother and he’s not the type to settle down and have kids, so I have been deprived of that knowledge,” Paul replied. “The Mets are playing this week, are you going to the game?” Paul asked.

“No, actually, I have a date actually.”

“Oh, good for you, what’s he like?”

“I’m not sure, it’s a blind date. Wally’s mom said it’s someone from her work.”

Before they could continue, they heard a commotion from out in the hall. Leaving their coffee, the pair of them shot to their feet to investigate. Rounding the corner, they found a formal and stern looking woman arguing with Joy at the desk. “Where is she? I was told she’d be out by now!” The woman demanded in a tone that implied she shouldn’t be argued with. Hugh stepped in, noting how irritated Joy looked, likely having already given the woman an answer she didn’t like.

“Excuse me, Ma’am, can I help you?”

“Finally, a Dr,” she said, shooting a look at Joy. “Where is my daughter? She was brought in after a car accident, I was told she’d be up here by now.”

“What’s your daughter’s name?”

“Sylvia Tilly.”

“I will personally check where your daughter is, but I must ask that you please do not shout at the nurses just because you don’t like their answer. They are doing everything they can, and I won’t tolerate it,” he said firmly, gesturing for her to join him in his office, rolling his eyes at Paul as they passed by. Paul went over to Joy who was seething.

“What happened there?”

“Her daughter was in a car accident this morning and is still in surgery, she didn’t like that answer,” Joy seethed. “Her daughter could be on the ward for a while, it’s gonna be an interesting few weeks if she’s sticking around.”

“Mmm, no kidding,” Paul said, looking in the direction of Hugh’s office.

The woman, Siobhan Tilly, it turned out was Minister to the British Ambassador who was touring the country, her daughter had been unfortunate enough to be caught in a car crash during a police chase. Her daughter, Sylvia, could not have been more diametrically opposed to her mother. At 9 years old she was very well spoken and polite and most of the nurses adored her. They were less enthusiastic about her mother. Siobhan didn’t seem to appreciate the trouble her daughter had apparently gotten herself into and would bring it up from time to time, making her daughter withdraw. In the first week of her stay, Siobhan began sending her daughter a tutor, insistent that she not fall behind on her schoolwork. When she argued with the nurses over it, Paul went and found Hugh who explained that her daughter was in no condition at that time.

Sylvia confided in the nurses how much she hated her name, claiming it was an ‘old lady name’ and she was made fun of in school over it, so she and the nurses came up with different nicknames she liked for the duration of her stay, quickly learning not to use them in front of her mother. The girl had come out of the accident with a broken left leg, sprained right ankle, 2 cracked ribs, a broken left arm and a concussion. By all accounts, she was lucky to be alive.

When Siobhan finally got clearance from a more senior Dr than Hugh to send in a tutor for her daughter, she walked past him and Paul with a smug look on her face. They hated seeing the poor kids struggling with school while the other kids on the ward were talking and having fun or being taken out for air with the nurses. Especially as it was the Summer vacation and no other kid there had schoolwork to do. “She’s going to burn out her poor daughter,” Hugh overheard Paul saying to the other nurses at the desk. “She just wants to be a normal kid.” He said sadly. “I hate having to leave her doing work when we take the others for some fresh air, speaking of, I guess I gotta do that now,” he sighed.

“Has she been out at all?” Hugh asked, “sorry, I overheard what you were saying.”

“It’s fine and no, her tutor’s sticking to her mom’s instructions. We can’t convince her,” he explained.

Hugh looked down the ward at the bored looking 9-year-old. Turning back to Paul and the other nurses, “leave it to me,” he said, taking his stethoscope out of his pocket and putting it around his neck. Paul and the other nurses shared looks but positioned themselves so they could hear and see what was happening.

Hugh made his way over to Sylvia’s bed where she was struggling through a French lesson. “How’s my hardest-working patient doing?” He asked, with a wide smile. The girl looked up at her tutor before unconvincingly saying she was good. “Well, time for your check up, do you mind?” He asked, charming the tutor, who removed the schoolwork. “Let’s take a look at your chart here, hmm,” his brow furrowed, “Hmm, I’m going to need to look into that,” he went over and put his stethoscope in his ears. Listening to her heart he hummed. He took his torch out of his pocket and checked her eyes, “interesting,” he murmured. Reaching into the draws by the side of the bed he took a tongue compressor, “open wide, say ah.”

“Argh.”

“Mmhmm, just what I thought,” he said, looking serious, “you are overworked young lady,” Sylvia looked at her lap, thinking she was in trouble. “And I’m afraid there’s only one cure,” he told her, looking up he spotted Paul hovering. “Nurse Stamets,” he called over.

“Yes Dr Culber?”

“A wheelchair for this young lady please, I’m prescribing 30 minutes at least fresh air, twice a day with the other children. During which no work is to be completed.” In her bed, Sylvia Tilly grinned excitedly. “Starting immediately.”

Paul grinned, “right away Dr,” Paul said, saluting which made his patient laugh. Paul wasted no time bringing a wheelchair and helping Sylvia into it as the other nurses readied the other children to go outside.

When the children were gone, Hugh turned to the tutor who looked somewhere between angry and stunned. “And if her mother has a problem with that, I’ll be in my office,” he smiled politely. From his office he could see the children in the roof top area on the floor below, he saw Sylvia being pushed by some of the nurses in wheelchair races, she was laughing and looked like she was enjoying herself.

By the time the children returned inside, the tutor was gone, and Sylvia was able to play cards with a few of the other children who could go and sit by and on her bed.

Elaina’s baby shower arrived, and Paul pushed the stroller around to Justin’s house, filled with gifts from the other nurses who wanted to send something but were working during the shower. Elaina saw him bringing the stroller into the back yard where the party was and waddled over. “Paul, oh my goodness, you shouldn’t have,” she said, hugging him as best she could.

“I wanted to, the stroller is from me, the other gifts are from the nurses who couldn’t make it,” he explained.

“It’s beautiful, thank you. Justin’s picking my mother up from her hotel, he’ll be back soon.” Elaina and her mother had always had an odd relationship, where they worked better from a distance, rather than under the same roof.

Paul stuck around after the shower to help tidy up and take down decorations before he had to go in for his night shift. He spent the first part of his shift reading to the children’s ward before they were tucked into their beds. He saw Hugh on his way out, wishing him a good weekend. Paul and his shift mate sat at the desk, going through paperwork and filing it from the day. After finishing that, they did rounds of the wards, checking everything was as it should be.

Everything was running smoothly, and they ordered Chinese take out around 2 in the morning for their lunch. One of the younger children woke up from a nightmare at around 3:30 and they got him back off to sleep with some warm milk and a short story.

At 8, they started doing morning medication rounds with the first round of incoming staff. Paul was scheduled for a double, so he took a 2-hour nap on the couch in the breakroom, where Joy woke him at 10:30 with hot coffee from the new coffee house a block away from the hospital. In the bathroom he splashed cold water on his face to help him wake up before taking a walk through the patients.

“Where’s Sylvia?” He asked one of the junior nurses as he wandered, using her name unless her mother was around.

“Her dad’s visiting, he took her out for air,” Jennifer the nurse responded. Sylvia Tilly’s father and her mother were separated, and his work had taken him to a different state, preventing him from visiting on evenings and days like most working parents. Jennifer told Paul that he had visited every weekend without fail so far and they were bliss, because if he was here, Siobhan wasn’t. “Ah, here they come,” Paul turned, hearing a child laughing. Sylvia was laughing as dad pushed her along, making silly noises, pretending to lose control of the wheelchair.

“Hi Paul!” She waved seeing him.

“Hey kiddo, how’re you feeling this morning?”

“Really good, you finally get to meet my daddy, daddy this is Nurse Paul.”

“Nice to meet you,” Paul stuck out his hand.

“Ian Tilly and likewise, I’ve heard plenty about you.”

“Oh, really, I wish I could say the same, but you must be a secret,” Paul teased.

“Guess what, daddy said when I get out I can go stay with him for a few weeks,” she told him, excitedly. Behind her, Ian nodded.

“That’s great, you’ll have to tell me all about it before you go.”

“I will,” she promised.

Sylvia was released a few weeks later, like she had said, into the custody of her father. She had started practising with crutches to help her get around, but she had been having a bit of trouble gripping one of them with her wrist cast. All of the nurses were sad to see her go, but they knew they’d see her if she returned to her mother and needed a check-up. The day of her release the nurses all waved her off into the elevator.

Paul became a Godfather in early September. He’d heard Elaina had been brought in during his shift and went to find where she was afterwards. He was in the waiting room with Justin’s sister and her husband, the other Godparents. He’d been there, chatting with them for a few hours when Justin came out of the hallway with the biggest grin on his face. “I have a son!” He declared and the three of them jumped to their feet to congratulate him.

Paul and the others were allowed in to see the baby briefly, where Justin laid his new son in Paul’s arms. “He looks just like you,” he said, a mischievous grin on his face as he leaned around Justin to talk to Elaina, “but don’t worry, he’ll grow out of looking like him,” and winked.

Elaina laughed while Justin rolled his eyes and said: “If you weren’t holding my son I’d slap you.”

“I’m kidding obviously, he’s beautiful, congratulations, both of you. So did you ever agree on a name for him?” He asked, knowing they’d been somewhat indecisive on the matter.

“Elijah, or Eli for short. Elijah Paul Straal.”

“Paul?”

“He’s gotta remember his Godfather somehow,” Justin told him, putting an arm around his shoulder.

“Well I’m honoured,” he told them as Elijah began fussing in his arms.

“Sounds like someone’s hungry,” Elaina’s nurse said, entering the room. Paul handed the baby over, hugged his best friend, kissed Elaina on the cheek and said his goodbyes to give them some privacy.

One day in October, as Hugh and Paul were drinking coffee in Hugh’s office, during their break, Hugh’s phone vibrated on the desk. “Hold on, let me read this,” Paul watched him read the text and frown.

“Something wrong?”

“Kellan can’t make the fundraiser tomorrow night, he’s known about this for weeks,” Hugh grumbled to himself, sending a diplomatic reply. “Now I have to find someone else at short notice,” he told Paul, “you wouldn’t happen to be free, would you?”

“I mean, I am, but you’ve seen how I tend to rub the higher-ups the wrong way, are you sure it’s a good idea?”

“Yeah, it’ll be fine, and you’d be doing me a huge favour and I’d owe you forever,” Hugh told him. “As long as Rudy doesn’t mind, of course.” Hugh backtracked, remembering Paul was also seeing someone.

“Well since I saw him with his PA’s tongue down his throat in his office last week, I don’t think he gets much of a say in the matter,” Paul replied, “I’ll go with you, Justin’s been telling me I need to get out more.”

“Hold on, back up, with who’s tongue down his throat?”

“His PA. I ended it there and then, I hadn’t been happy for a while so no loss really. I should get back,” he said checking his watch.

“Well I’d argue it was his loss,” Hugh said, quietly to himself, slipping his phone into his desk draw once Paul was gone.

The next evening, Paul got ready in the locker room after his shift, leaving his keys with Justin so he could get himself home. He found Hugh in his office, in a tux, putting the finishing touches on some paperwork. “Hey, ready when you are,” he said, knocking before entering.

“Yep, just let me… finish entering this… Done.” Hugh saved his records and shut off his machine. “Let’s make a move,” he said. He took Paul down to the staff parking lot and to his car, in which he drove them to the fundraiser. Paul wasn’t sure what he had been expecting when he was looking for Hugh’s car, but a Mini Cooper wasn’t it.

“Interesting car choice.”

Hugh chuckled, “me and my dad were fans of this old British movie, the Italian Job, it’s a heist movie where they use Mini Coopers to pull off the heist,” he explained, starting to drive.

“Is it any good?”

“Would I have gotten the car if I thought it was bad?”

“Fair point,” Paul conceded.

As they drove, Paul became aware of the low-level music playing. It was similar to what he heard in Hugh’s office, playing through his later and night shifts. “What music is this?” He asked, unable to make out anything specific.

“It’s Opera, it’s my favourite, helps me think and work,” Hugh told him, “I’d say you can try the radio, but it got busted a couple of months back and I never really used it. We can turn it off if you’d like.”

“No, no, it’s fine, I was just wondering.” Paul said before they returned to silence.

During the fundraiser, Paul tried to keep a low profile, sticking with Hugh where he could, but even he couldn’t escape being questioned by donors as to what equipment he thought the hospital needed. Where he could remember he would mention something Hugh had said, otherwise he would comment that the computer systems were due an upgrade, which would increase processing time and help see patients quicker and help the nurses.

Hugh drove him home after the fundraiser, following the directions Paul gave him. “Tonight was good, I’ve never been to the fundraisers before,” he said as they pulled up. “Thanks for the invite.”

“You’ve been there years; how come you never had an invite?” Paul simply gave him a look that told him all he needed to know. Paul wasn’t popular with the higher-ups because he often knew better and would do what he thought was right for the patients. He also wasn’t one to just take what the Drs were telling him to do if it wasn’t part of his job. Like coffee runs for example. “Right,” Hugh conceded.

“Anyway, thank you. I’ll see you Monday?”

“See you then.” Hugh watched Paul into the house and Paul watched as he drove away before going to work on the car for his grandparents. Their 60th Anniversary was a few Summers away, and he was getting close to finishing his project.

Christmas week seemed to sneak up on Paul that year, after two more failed attempts at dating, he threw himself into his work life, only noticing the holidays’ approach when he arrived at the hospital to see the halls decorated. Fortunately, Paul was very organised and had bought his family’s gifts through the year so all he had to do was put them in the post. He bought his Godson some toys and clothes and Justin and Elaina a weekend getaway so they could visit family. His main complication came through the Hospital Secret Santa.

Discovery usually did it by department and floors, and Paul had drawn Hugh as his. At first, he wasn’t sure what to get him, then he volunteered to take Joy’s late shift so she could be with her elderly in-laws for the holiday. While filing things through the night, he heard the music coming from Hugh’s office and started searching online for places where operas were performed, ordering a gift card which he picked up on his way home from his shift the next morning.

Secret Santa gifts were exchanged on Christmas Eve as they would have reduced numbers on Christmas day. Paul had debated whether or not to sign his gift from him or just as a Secret Santa. He’d peaked at the pile and most people seemed to be signing from themselves, so he took out a pen and scribbled his name on the ‘from’ line.

During the exchange the duty fell to the newest member of staff to hand out the gifts. Hugh felt for her, last year it had been him who the duty had fallen to. When he received his, he smiled, recognising Paul’s writing before he saw his name. Leaning over he thanked him for his thoughtful gift, his mind already running through what shows were upcoming and which he might want to see.

Hugh knew Paul would be working Christmas Day, he’d put his name down weeks ago. Hugh had volunteered at the last minute, after finding out Kellan didn’t want him to come home with him for Christmas as he wasn’t out to his family. Hugh had felt hurt when he found out, not that he wasn’t out, that he could understand, it was the fact Kellan hadn’t told him after months of dating. It had been too late to get flights to his parents, so he settled for skyping them and going to the Hospital. It wouldn’t be so bad; he had some patients he was close to that would be in for the holiday.

Christmas morning found all of the medical staff in festive hats and jumpers taking gifts around to patients, wishing them a happy holiday if the patient had said they didn’t celebrate Christmas themselves. From his office he could hear the games and party happening in the wards; when his curiosity was getting the better of him, he went for a wander, checking in with patients, stopping to talk and get to know each one that he could.

For weeks, Hugh scoured the internet, looking for a show he wanted to see and booked tickets for late May.

Paul was driving himself and Justin home during a typical May downpour. The windshield wipers had been on since they left the hospital and were barely helping, but Paul would know that car on the side of the road anywhere. It was a car that only contained opera music and Dr Hugh Culber. “That’s weird,” he said, squinting to be sure.

“What’s weird?” Justin asked, looking up from the latest pictures their nanny had sent him of Eli while he’d been at work.

“Dr Culber left the hospital three hours ago,” he said, “mind if I pull up?”

Justin shrugged, “go for it,” he said, turning back to the videos he’d missed.

Paul pulled over, pulling his raincoat from the back seat on, he pulled the hood tight and made his way through the downpour to the car, fortunately parked under a large, overbearing tree and out of the direct rain.

Hugh, seeing the other driver approaching climbed out of his vehicle, “Paul?”

“Hey,” Paul called back as he got under the cover of the tree, “need a hand?”

“The engine cut out, break-down recovery can’t make it for another two hours,” he explained.

“Want me to take a look? My grandad taught me how to build engines from scratch, I might be able to help.” He offered.

Hugh looked relieved, “be my guest,” he shouted over the downpour, waving at the car. Leaning back into the driver-side door, Hugh popped the hood on his Mini and went to stand with Paul as he examined it.

“I can fix this,” he declared, after a few minutes.

“You think so?”

“I know so; since I was 12. Let me get my tools.” Jogging back to his own car, Paul got his tools out the back and told Justin to go home, he could fix the issue, but didn’t want to keep him from his family.

“How will you get home?” Justin asked.

“I’ll call a cab,” he said, tossing the car keys in his direction. Returning to Hugh, he explained he’d sent Justin away and got to work.

“You know you don’t have to get a cab,” Hugh said as he began work, “if you manage to fix my car, I think dropping you off is the least I can do.”

“Thanks, but you really don’t have to,” Paul replied.

“I’d like to,” Hugh said, holding the tools for him. Paul smiled as he worked. It took around 30 minutes until Paul closed the hood.

“Alright, give it a shot,” he said, confidently. Apprehensively, Hugh got behind the wheel and turned the key, the car roared to life and Paul looked triumphant, putting his tools away.

“Thank you, so much,” Hugh called, “come on, hop in, I’m giving you a ride, the rain’s only going to get worse and I don’t think you’ll have much luck with cab companies.” Grateful, Paul climbed into the passenger seat, pulling the sun visor down to brush his hair out of his face more effectively, in the mirror, as Hugh set off. He noticed two tickets tucked into the strap in the visor.

“You decided on a show? Was it any good?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Hugh saw the tickets, “Hmm? Oh, it’s in a week or so, I’m looking forward to it,” he said, setting his jaw.

“Kellan looking forward to it too?” There it was. The question Hugh wished he wouldn’t have asked.

“I don’t think so,” Hugh said, sighing. “We split up a couple of weeks back,” he admitted, pain in his voice.

“I’m sorry,” Paul said, regretting asking, “you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. Take the next left.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes before Hugh broke it, “he’s getting married,” he said suddenly.

“Wait, what?”

“When he went to see his family at Christmas…” He paused, he’d not told any of his friends this information, “The reason I didn’t spend Christmas with his family was he wasn’t out to them. Turns out, it was so much worse, he got engaged at Christmas to some girl he grew up with, they’re getting married in the Autumn. Which way?” He asked.

“Right, hold up, he got engaged at Christmas and kept it from you?”

“Yep, I found out by accident. His computer was already set up, so I went to check my emails to print the tickets and I saw all these wedding websites open in the other tabs. He told me his friend from back home was getting married, so I thought maybe he was helping choose stuff as his Best Man?” He explained, “but then I saw an invitation and there was his name. He came in and snatched the computer from me, we argued, spent all night arguing and he left. When I came home from my next shift all his stuff was gone.”

“Hugh, I’m so-”

“Sorry? Yeah, so was my mom and my sisters, my dad, my four aunts who called me. Don’t feel bad, if I hadn’t found out then, I would’ve found out later and been more hurt.”

They spent the rest of the journey in silence, only giving and asking directions until they pulled up in front of Paul’s house. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Thanks for fixing my car, and apologies for not being the best company.”

“No worries, already forgiven,” Paul assured him, pulling his hood up and picking up his tools before he stepped back into the downpour.

Hugh spoke again as Paul reached for the handle. “You wouldn’t want to come, would you? To the show?” Paul’s hand froze. “Stupid question, you know what, forget I asked.”

“No, no, I mean, I don’t know much about opera, but I’d be willing to give it a try, if you can’t find anyone else that is.” He said.

“If I ask anyone else, I’d have to explain why Kellan isn’t going. And besides, you gave me the gift card for the tickets. You never know, you might enjoy yourself.” Hugh replied.

“Alright, I’d be honoured, what night is it?”

“Next Friday.”

“I’ll find someone to switch shifts with me,” Paul smiled, and Hugh smiled back.

“Thanks. See you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow,” Paul said, pulling his hood down once more before climbing out and sprinting to his house.

Friday night, Paul dressed in his tux again, as advised by Hugh, and drove to the theatre to meet him. Once there, they went to the bar, ordered a drink for then and for the interval and waited. “So what’s this show about?” Paul asked, hoping to God he wasn’t asking the most stupid question ever. But by the way Hugh smiled and began explaining the premise, he knew he hadn’t.

Paul didn’t manage to quite follow everything happening in the show, but every so often his eyes would flick over to Hugh, to check which emotion he should be displaying and the look of total immersion in his eyes made the corners of Paul’s mouth point up before schooling his expression. It was clear from Hugh’s face he was passionate about this kind of theatre and Paul was just glad to have been exposed to it.

Later that year, on a Friday morning in November, Paul and Justin arrived early to their shift to find Hugh sleeping on the breakroom couch, which was odd, because he wasn’t scheduled as On Call or with the night shift. Justin made coffee and Paul woke him up. “Hmm, what time is it?” Hugh grumbled in his sleep.

“6, what’re you doing at work?” Paul asked and Hugh’s eyes shot open. Groaning, he sat up and stretched, accepting the coffee Justin held out to him.

“The power and water are out in my building,” Hugh told them, “landlord told me yesterday he doesn’t know when it’ll get fixed, so I fell asleep here,” he yawned. “It was more comfortable than my office where I slept last night.”

“You slept in your office?”

Hugh nodded, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, “There weren’t any available hotels, I’m gonna check again today.”

“I mean, Paul has a spare room he’s not using,” Justin said, and Paul wanted to smack him. Hugh perked up; his eyes silently hopeful that he had heard right.

“Um, yeah,” Paul said, “I have a spare room you could stay in,” he offered. Justin was trying to make him look like an ass, while Paul had a spare room and it was set up for guests, it was more for his parents or other out of town visitors.

“I mean, I’d be eternally grateful, if it wouldn’t be an imposition,” Hugh said, backtracking.

“No, not at all,” Paul assured him, “me and Mark split, so it’ll be nice to have the company,” he admitted. “Grab what you need from your place and come by tonight, I can text you the address if you need it.”

“Please and Paul, thank you so much. You don’t know how much I appreciate this.”

Paul was somewhat glad he was still getting over sharing his space with someone else, or he feared he wouldn’t be a very good host. That still didn’t make him want to throttle Justin any less for volunteering his home. Not that he minded so much, but that wasn’t the point. Hugh arrived at around 8 and Paul gave him a tour after realising Hugh had never been there before. “Help yourself in the kitchen, and laundry when you need to do it is in the garage,” Paul said, “did you eat yet? Justin’s coming over in about twenty minutes for the Hockey game and normally we order Thai food, you’re welcome to join us.”

“Who’s playing?” Hugh asked, he’d seen a few hockey games as a kid and played in High School.

“Chicago and Pittsburgh,” Paul said, opening the fridge.

“As long as I’m not imposing.”

“Of course not. Beer?” He asked, holding a bottle out to Hugh.

“Maybe once the games started, I’m just gonna go unpack my stuff for the morning.”

“Alright, see you in a bit,” Paul opened his own drink and went to set the TV up for the game.

When Hugh came back down, when he could hear Justin had arrived, he was sporting a Pittsburgh Penguins’ Hockey Jersey with 87 ‘Crosby’ on the back of it. He paused, seeing Justin grin before his eyes caught Paul’s coasters and own Jersey, with the number 3 and ‘Magnuson’ on the back. He and Paul laughed; this was the third time they had discovered they were sporting rivals. The first was the baseball game the year before, the second was last year’s Superbowl where they had backed opposing teams in the staff pool and now this.

They ordered their food and waited for the game to start, watching the pre-game stats and talks. Through the game, as they grew more comfortable around each other, they began heckling each other’s teams, good naturedly, for bad passes and near misses.

Paul spent most of the game holding his Godson, who Justin had brought over while Elaina was on a Hen Night for a friend from college, on his lap, bouncing him and making him cheer when the Blackhawks scored and boo when the Penguins did. Eli babbled through most of the game, eyeing Hugh, a stranger wearily from a distance.

After the game, which Paul’s team won in overtime, Justin made his way home with Eli and Paul told Hugh he was going to do some work in the garage. “I might take you up on doing some laundry, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem, the machines are in the little room off the back of the garage,” he reminded Hugh, pulling off his Blackhawk’s Jersey and hanging it on the railing by the bottom of the stairs.

As he neared the garage door, Hugh could hear music playing. He put his laundry in and went to leave, pausing when he saw Paul’s feet sticking out from under a car. Paul’s garage was on two levels, the street level and then a platform with stairs to connect it to the house. He stayed on the second platform, admiring the car before seeing his watch and deciding to turn in.

It was two weeks before Hugh mentioned the car to Paul. They had been living in contented harmony, both were easy roommates. Hugh was doing laundry again and he paused, leaning over the platform railing on his way back to the house. “What kind of car is it?” He asked Paul who was cleaning some piece of equipment with an oily rag. Paul, caught off-guard, jumped slightly but called for Alexa to kill the music.

“It’s an Aston Martin, it’s for my grandparent’s 60th wedding Anniversary this coming Summer.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“It’s hand built in this garage,” Paul told him.

“You built this whole car?”

“Every last bit of it. It’s almost finished, got a couple more pieces coming in the mail, then she’s all done. Best 4, maybe 5 years of my life building this thing. You can come down and take a look if you like.”

“So why this car?” Hugh asked, reaching the lower level.

Paul smiled, “when they got married, for their honeymoon, they took a road trip in one just like it. They had it for years until it finally died when I was 11. I wanted to do something special for 60 years.”

“Well it’s certainly special, I bet they’re gonna love it.”

Hugh stuck around, passing Paul tools when he asked for them until he had to switch his laundry to the dryer and headed to bed.

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Hugh got a call from his landlord, saying his water and power were back on. “Good news,” he said, falling into step beside Paul as he went through the wards, checking on patients.

“Do tell?”

“My power and water are back.”

“That’s great, just in time for Thanksgiving. Are you doing anything by the way? My brother is flying in, you could join us for dinner.” He offered.

“Thanks, but I’m going home for the weekend. Mariana said she has big news for the family so if I miss it I’ll be in serious trouble from her.”

“Ah, understood,” Paul chuckled, Mariana had visited Hugh more than once and she always had a smile for him when they ran into each other. “Give her my best when you see her.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” Hugh agreed as his pager sounded. “Duty calls,” he said, veering in the other direction.

Since Hugh went home for Thanksgiving, he didn’t go home for Christmas again that year. Mariana’s news, he shared with Paul, was that she and her fiancé had both set a date and were expecting their first baby. Paul and Hugh, brought together by their many shared shifts and breaks, had begun spending more time together after Thanksgiving and up to Christmas.

Things changed for them after the Staff Christmas party. The party had been great, they had relaxed with their co-workers and were walking together to find a cab company to get home. Justin and Elaina had gone home earlier, so Paul was on his own.

They were a little tipsy and laughing as they walked past other crowded bars towards the cab dispatch. In front of them, a group of younger people exited a bar, laughing and making noise. One of the girls pulled a selfie stick out of her bag, attached to the selfie stick, was a sprig of mistletoe, which she began waving over her friends and people they passed by. Including, when they reached them, Hugh and Paul.

Hugh was hesitant, put Paul cupped his cheek and pressed their lips together as the young people cheered and moved on. They pulled back and their eyes locked as they were drawn magnetically back together to kiss again. Paul deepened the kiss. Hugh relaxed into it. Suddenly, his mind raced. This was Paul he was kissing. Paul. Wonderful, nice, amazing Paul. Paul who, hot damn, was a good kisser. But this was Paul. Paul from work. Paul who had a rule about dating co-workers.

Suddenly feeling very sober, Hugh pulled back from the kiss and stepped away before Paul could lean in again.

He saw Paul’s mind working as he realised Hugh had moved away to put an end to the kissing. He saw the rejection wash over him. “I- I should go,” Paul said, turning and walking back the way they had come from.

“Paul wait-” but Paul was already gone, and Hugh felt cold.

Hugh started to think that Paul was avoiding him. When they were on shift together, which seemed extremely rare since the New Year. He only saw him when he would stay late, and Paul would come in for a night shift. Justin told him over coffee that Paul was taking more night shifts and he hadn’t told him why. “I think I have an idea,” Hugh said, feeling guilty.

“Well go on, tell.”

“After the staff party, there were some young people with mistletoe, and they put it over us. We kissed under the mistletoe and then, Paul kissed me again and I kissed him back. I realised what we were doing and pulled back and I think Paul took offense to that and he walked away. I should’ve just stopped him after the first one.”

“Can I be honest with you?” Justin asked.

“Sure.”

“I love Paul, he’s my best friend and he’s like a brother to me. But he’s one stubborn bastard. You’ll have to be the one to reach out, because I know he won’t. Even though he’s miserable without talking to you,” Justin’s eyes caught the clock, “I gotta go. He’s not working tonight, try giving him a text.” He recommended, leaving Hugh alone to his thoughts.

Hugh spent the night staring at his phone, trying to decide whether or not he would text Paul. In the end, he did, he sent him a brief message, ‘ _Hey, hope you’re OK, haven’t seen you around much_.’

In his garage, Paul’s phone vibrated, unknowingly to him. He was working on the final touches to the car and didn’t see the text until about three in the morning where he knew it was much too late to text him back.

It was late April; Paul was at a party for Justin and Elaina’s 10th wedding anniversary. He was helping clear up and listening to Elaina’s detailed instructions about Elijah’s bedtime routine. They were going away for the weekend and Paul was watching Eli for the night until her sister arrived home from her vacation the next morning.

“You’ll have to keep an eye on him, he’s starting to behave like a real little monkey, he’ll climb anything and everything.” She warned him.

“Understood, line the floor with pillows and cushions,” he responded, and she smiled.

“And don’t panic, my sister will be here first thing in the morning.”

“Don’t sweat it, me and Eli will be fine, I work with kids all the time. Come ‘ere buddy,” he took Eli from his mother and tickling him. “As long as she gets there before work.”

“Oh are you back on days?” Elaina asked.

“Not by choice,” Paul assured her, “but you have to do what you have to do.”

“Hugh will be on days,” Justin said, taking his son to say goodbye by throwing him in the air.

“Sorry?”

“You know, the totally awesome guy you should just get over yourself and ask out.”

“How’d you-?”

“I talked to him, you know, when you stopped turning up to days and I had to have my coffee with _other_ people?” Justin told him, looking him dead in the eye.

“Justin, you know why I can’t.” Paul argued.

“Paul, that was 10 years ago, you can’t let one bad guy set the precedent for you you’re willing to date,” he argued back. “Not everyone is going to be like Luke.” Paul looked down. Deep down, he knew Justin was right, but he had always been a cautious person and didn’t want a repeat of his disastrous relationship.

This was why he never dated co-workers. He and Luke had started out together, they knew each other from med-school and got their first posting together in New York. He and Luke had been together for three years when Luke got promoted over Paul and Paul found out he just couldn’t turn it off. He started taking charge at home, where previously they had split everything fairly. Eventually, they split up and Luke got to keep all of their friends at work, because he had more shifts and told everyone Paul was being unreasonable.

Paul lost his friends, his apartment and his partner and he vowed never to put himself in that position again. “I don’t know Justin.” He said, sadly.

At his own home, Paul found that Eli wasn’t just starting to climb, he was an expert at it. He spent most of the evening chasing him around, pulling him off of bits of furniture. They watched the basketball game until Eli fell asleep. He set him in the travel crib he’d borrowed from Justin. Before he turned in himself, he lined the outer edge with pillows, in case he tried to climb out.

After dropping Eli with his aunt, Paul headed to the hospital for his first day shift in weeks. His colleagues greeted him fondly, having missed him being around as he started up his work. His superiors, mainly the only year-long Chief of Medicine, Dr Gabriel Lorca – a man with whom he had never seen eye to eye with, even before his promotion- had told him he couldn’t stay on the night shift, they needed him during the days, whether he liked it or not. He saw Hugh briefly, as he walked past the breakroom, talking to the Chief of Medicine. Joy, who was having coffee with him leaned in, “he’s interviewing at other hospitals,” she told him.

“Since when?”

“It’s a recent development, probably wants a change of scenery. He hasn’t quite been the same since Christmas,” she told him, standing and brushing the crumbs from her snack from her uniform. “See you later,” she told him, returning to the front desk.

He kept an eye through the day, to see if there would be a moment that he could stick his head around the office door to talk to Hugh. A talk he knew was well overdue. He seized his opportunity before he left for the day. Knocking and waiting until he was called in after changing out of his scrubs. “Come in.” Hugh called. Taking a deep breath, Paul went in, closing the door behind him. “Oh, hey.”

“Hey,” Paul said, “mind if we talk?”

“Have a seat.” Hugh said, bearing Justin’s advice in mind.

“I’m sorry I didn’t text you back, I was working on the car, didn’t see the text until like 3 in the morning.”

“It’s fine Paul,” Hugh replied, trying to stay calm.

They sat in silence until Paul blurted out, “I heard you were interviewing at other hospitals.”

Hugh looked down at his desk, “yeah, I actually got a call from them. I said I’d do the interview, but I honestly don’t know if I wanna go,” he told him.

“Oh, how come?”

“I think I’m getting past the age of moving across the country to start over, you know?”

“Across the country?”

“Yeah, San Francisco.”

“Oh wow, very across the country then.”

“Very across the country.”

“All the way.” They fell into silence again. Eventually, Paul broke the silence. “I’m sorry I was an ass,” he said, getting Hugh’s attention. “I shouldn’t have just walked away like that and I owe you an explanation.”

“I’d agree, should we head off? You can tell me over coffee?”

“Honestly, I may need something stronger.”

“There’s a great bar down the street,” Hugh suggested.

“Let’s do it.”

Arriving at the bar, Paul ordered neat whiskey, beer and some fries, not wanting to drink on an empty stomach. He drained the whiskey and started sipping the beer. “OK, let me have it,” Hugh said, bracing himself. Over the next hour, Paul explained about Luke and their relationship. Hugh listened patiently, nodding at the appropriate moments and saying the right things. “Paul that’s awful, I’m so sorry.”

“I’ve come to peace with it, but telling people is never easy,” he explained. “But I still shouldn’t have just walked off like that. It was wrong. And frankly, I shouldn’t have kept kissing you.”

“Honestly, I didn’t mind so much until I remembered your policy, that’s the reason I stopped,” Hugh admitted.

“I appreciate that you did,” Paul assured him, “I also know that I’m an idiot. Justin reminded me of that,” he told Hugh. “If you’d be willing, I would love to actually try going out with you.” He said, feeling brave. Hugh thought, he knew it was a risk, but he did like Paul. In fact, one of his ex’s in his failed relationships had blamed it on Paul. Saying Hugh clearly wasn’t over him. And at the time, he was right, Hugh hadn’t then gotten over Paul. He had wanted to see him again.

“I think I’d like that,” he smiled.

They each took a cab home that night, promising to text in the morning when they could think clearly to make arrangements.

It had been a long day for Paul. He’d lost one of his favourite patients today, it had been a long time coming, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. He’d spent the night sitting with his elderly patient who had no family in the state, reading to her from her favourite book as she peacefully died. When she had passed, he pressed the button for a Dr to come and confirm in and held her hand until she was taken away, with tears on his cheeks.

Pauline Neece had been a favourite of Paul’s since he recognised her from years before when she had had a broken leg. She remembered him very clearly and they spent his breaks catching up. Her family had excluded her from family gatherings when she had refused to host but she had taken in one of her teenaged grandchildren when their parents had kicked them out for being gay. Her children had moved out of state and her only grandchild who talked to her still, was at College halfway across the country.

She had been in and out of the hospital with various health issues and every time, she made sure to ask for Paul to be notified she had been admitted. She carried on with her crochet until her fingers hadn’t been able to hold the hook and wool steady, at which point she taught him to do it for her so she could finish the blanket in her granddaughter’s College colours that she planned to send for Christmas as they couldn’t afford to fly her back and forth.

Before he left the hospital, he called her granddaughter to let her know and told her that he was buying her a return ticket so she could attend the funeral and would not take no for an answer. They cried on the phone for a little while before he had to drive home, even offering her the spare room if she didn’t want to stay in her grandma’s empty house.

Paul’s trainee, Michael, had been on her first solo night shift and kept bringing him tea as he had read to Pauline. He really appreciated her, even if he hadn’t been entirely willing to take her on in the beginning. He thanked her before he left, driving carefully home, having to pull over for breathers twice on the way.

When he got into the house, it was 5AM. Before going to the master bedroom, he popped his head around the door of the small bedroom, laying eyes on a sight that made his heart melt. Hugh was asleep in the plush armchair with their two-year-old daughter, Ana Sofía, on his chest, fast asleep. The day before had been her vaccinations and she had never been in a good mood after them in the past. Gently, he extracted Ana Sofía, pressed a kiss to her curls and laid her in her bed.

Carefully, he woke Hugh, who looked tired and led him by the hand to their room. “Did she?”

“A couple of hours ago. I called Christina, like she asked, and we talked and cried. I told her I was flying her back for the funeral, whether she likes it or not,” he said, softly as Hugh held him. “And I offered her the spare room, if she didn’t want to stay at the empty house.”

“That’s fine, I’ll make up the bed later,” Hugh said.

Paul changed into some pyjamas and pulled back the covered as crying sounded from Ana Sofía’s room. Hugh sighed, going to see to her. “Bring her in, I could use more cuddles tonight.” He called after him. Dropping onto the mattress, he pulled the covers up and waited.

“Look who’s home,” he heard Hugh’s soft voice soothing Ana Sofía as he brought her through, “it’s daddy and he looks like he needs an Ana cuddle.”

Ana Sofía instantly tried to reach for Paul. Hugh set her on the bed, and she climbed over the duvet and hugged Paul, snuggling against his chest. “Hey baby,” Paul greeted her, laying on his side.

“Dada,” she mumbled tiredly as Hugh joined them under the covers, kissing the both of them. Paul settled her in the middle and turned off the bedside lamp, drifting off to sleep, surrounded by his favourite people.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed, Kudos and reviews always appreciated <3 <3


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